Tune Your Technique: Indoor Golf Drills to Do at Home

It’s time to get back into the swing of things, but before you hit the links, you need to practice a few shots. What’s a golf enthusiast to do? Get out your clubs and run some drills at home. Unless you live out in the country, you probably don’t have a lot of space to drive a ball or practice putting. But, what you can do is mow a small section of your yard and set up a net to catch balls.

Golf nets, or hitting nets as they’re called, are large nets that let you drive balls into them so that you can practice your full “live” swing without sending a golf ball through your neighbor’s window. They’re run you anywhere from $14 up to $300 for a nice net.

This should be in every golfer’s back yard, so go ahead and pick one up. Aside from that, here are a few other ways to do drills in your back yard.

Practice Your Short Game

Set up a section of your yard for your short game. Most golfers lose their putting skills first, and these are the hardest to train. Putting is where holes are made or lost, so spend a lot of time doing it.

If you ask a professional, he’ll often tell you that direction is more important than distance when putting. Yet, time and time again, most professionals actually putt for distance. Why? Because when you can control distance, you can control whether your ball goes into the hole on the first swing versus the 25th.

Even if you get the direction right, overpowering the ball will add strokes to the hole – not good. To practice your short game, place a golf ball on a penny. Then, with another golf ball, try to “kiss” the ball on the penny from various angles and distances without knocking it off the penny.

This is a lot harder than it sounds, but it’s one of the best ways to learn how to judge distance. It will also dramatically improve your putting.

Get A Golf Mat

A golf mat, like those sold by Real FeelGolf Mats, will also help you practice your game, and improve your swing. These mats replicate the feel of the golf course, and are dense but soft, just like what you’d find out on the green.

They also replicate the feel of divots, so that you can better approximate how your swing will affect the ground beneath you. Golf mats can also help you putt if you don’t have access to a lawnmower that can cut your grass to the proper length.

But, not all mats are created equal. Some of the best will let you anchor a tee and give you an authentic driving experience. Combined with a golf mat, it’s kind of like having a golf course in your back yard – or, at least a driving range.

Use The Wedge

Using a wedge is something a lot of golfers don’t do. But, it’s an important skill to develop. Getting yourself out of a sand trap, or up on the green from downhill, is best accomplished using this club. It takes a lot of practice to get good with it though.

Give yourself about 10 feet of open space. Put a small towel down on the ground about 10 feet away from you. Now, use your pitching wedge to chip 100 balls onto the towel. Keep practicing until you can knock balls you’ve previously chipped onto the towel, off.